Wednesday, October 31, 2007

More Personal History

But not mine, this time.

The collection at the museum in Smock was enough to make my visit to Pennsylvania especially memorable. But then, on my last day, my grandmother's friend Sue invited me over to see some "family things" she thought would interest me.

Sue's life had a romantic beginning. Her mother, an Englishwoman, was in the RAF. Her father, an American, was in the Army. Her mother outranked her father, but they fell in love and married before her father was shipped back to the United States.

Sue was born in England, and at six months old sailed to America with her mother on a ship chartered specially for war brides. Sue still has their orange cardboard "WAR BRIDE" identification tags. From the ship they transferred to the train that brought them to Pennsylvania and Sue's father. According to Sue's mother, she was so excited to see her husband again she nearly left her daughter on the platform.

Sue's grandfather, a native of the Cotswolds, was a stone carver and a fanatic for historical relics. He kept a museum of artisanal implements and antique farm machinery, and also acted as de facto curator of the family memorabilia. Much of it came to Sue, who shared it with me.

There is so much beautiful stuff in her collection (she has four christening gowns, the oldest of which appears to me to date from the 1840s) that I'm going to confine myself to showing you the highlights, which she kindly allowed me to photograph.

The first thing she pulled out was a black silk apron, intended to jazz up a plain dress for calls or company. The lower part is worked with a series of floral sprays worked in ribbon embroidery.

There was also a rather spectacular silk choker with an ornamental bib worked in a combination of silk and metallic threads with some bead embellishment.

On the christening gowns and many other pieces (including a petticoat and a piece of lingerie made for her grandmother's dowry) I noticed a lace pattern that appeared several times over the generations worked in different threads and at different sizes.

Sue says that her family claims descent from the first marriage of Catherine Swinford, who was the mistress and then the wife of John of Gaunt, uncle of Richard II. Her mother taught her that the Tudor Rose in the pattern is intended as a reminder of Catherine.

Out of more recent history, but no less fascinating to me, were textile souvenirs sent back to England from Sue's grandfather from France and Belgium during World War I. There are two handkerchiefs like the one at right, but what really caught my attention was an album filled with dozens of embroidered post cards.

I've seen embroidered cards before, but most of them were cheap and utterly graceless junk from China. The level of creativity in Sue's postcard album was astonishing.

The last of the pictured postcards is, Sue says, a portrait of her grandfather. The images themselves are slightly smaller than actual size.

And finally, she pulled out something that had been specially made for her during her English babyhood by her mother with help from friends. It's a simple but sweet dress with a beautifully smocked bodice. The material? Sky blue silk–from an RAF parachute.

We'd finished with the textiles, but before I left Sue showed me a set of astonishing mementos actually made by her grandfather. During the war, stuck in the trenches with restless hands, he turned shell casings into matchbox covers to send to the family.

My favorite shows, on one side, Sue's worried grandmother on the home front, thinking "I wonder how my dear boy is in France."

On the back, sitting in a trench, calmly picking lice out of his uniform, is her grandfather, with the reassuring message, "I am all right."

83 comments:

Wow. I am amazed at all these lovely things and that your family has so lovingly preserved them. How proud you must be that some day Abigail's christening shawl will be added to this bevy of treasures!

What a beautiful archive - and your photographing it, with accompanying stories, will certainly help to preserve it.

(And if you run, right now, over to BBC's Radio 4, the current book of the week, 29th Oct to 2nd Nov, is a new biography of Kathering Swynford, available for downloading, and she certainly sounds scandalous!)

Thank you, and extend my thanks to Sue, for allowing you to photograph and tell the stories of some of her family keepsakes. My family, not so much with the keepsakes. A decided lack of sentiment streaks through the generations. My grandmother got rid of her own wedding dress. I enjoy seeing and hearing about other family's stories.

Delurking to say: This post made me cry in the happiest way at the last photos. I love history, and much of my family history is lost; so I really like other people's family history! Thanks to you and your acquaintance for sharing and preserving this.

I'm a little teary from the last one. It's particularly interesting given something that's been popping up here--in Toronto--this week: lapel poppies for Veteran's Day. It's a really noticeable difference between the US and Canada, the increased attention to WWI and its commemoration, vs. the US focus (I'd sort of say) on WWII.

If not Piecework, write it up and submit it to NeedleArts for the Embroiderer's Guild. Seriously dude. You could narrow it down to just the embroidered postcards, or some such, but you've got an article there, hon.

I loved all of the pictures and items, but especially the last ones. In addition to being a knitter, I'm a budding printmaker. To re-create those images on plates and make prints of them would be astounding, but of course not as much so as the original carvings. That's so cool that you were given a tour through that lady's family

Wow! Though I heard the stories on Saturday, they mean all the more seeing the matchbook covers for real! I didn't even begin to imagine their exquisite design! The story was sweet when verbally conveyed but means even more having now seen them...thanks again for sharing.

What a lovely treasure trove - we so seldom are able to connect the treasure with the story behind it. And of course, the story is the best part. Thank you for sharing - I agree that this should be an article, or several, in one of the needlework magazines.

i love these epics. they are wonderful. and the pictures. and maybe i love them very much because we all have some stories from around that turbulent time in our family history. and all the needlework is gorgeous. yes.

What an incredible history you've been able to touch. And you've touched us in the telling. Thanks! Everyone has a story to share, and how fortunate for your family and their friends that you're there to help them do it. Beautiful.

I think I may be Sue's distant cousin. My grandparents were very interested in genealogy and apparently I'm descended from the mistress of John of Gaunt. (Well, probably me and a thousand other people, but there.)

Stunning. How incredible lucky is she to have such a rich family legacy. And how lucky are you that she shared her story with you! You did her and the treasures justice! Thanks for sharing with all of us.

I've always been interested in historic fiber works. Next time you head towards the east coast, try looking at the collection in Bethlehem PA's Moravian Museum. They, too, have a nice collection of early 18th century textiles.

Thank you so much, Franklin, for sharing all this with your readers. It's a fascinating, and very personal, glimpse into history. And I followed the link back to read about Smock, too. More good stuff.

And the commenters before me are right. You've got the making of several good articles here.

I have a collection of trench art from The Great War to Vietnam. I always imagine these young men (most of them boys, really) waiting in boredom and terror for the next slice of chaos. Mourning their friends, missing their homes. Using whatever scant materials they have at hand to express themselves artistically. A few of my favorites: Lighters made of coins, sweetheart lapel flower holders made of shells, and a perfect Spitfire carved from the windscreen of a downed Messerschmitt.

just gorgeous - I have an embroidered WW1 silk handkerchief keeper [spotted unfortunately thanks to mum's wrapping it in plastic ]with it's hankie inside in pristine condition to be carried by my DD on her wedding day whenever that happens... oh and my mum outraked das too so he had to salute her and call her "ma'am"

Copyright and Posting Notice

All original content of this blog, both words and images, is held in copyright by F. Habit. Use of any kind, in any medium, for any reason without express, prior written consent is prohibited.

Permission is not granted for the posting of any content from this site to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or any other Web site.

Please do not provide links to any product, service, organization or cause when leaving comments unless directly related to the topic of the post. Unsolicited advertising will be deleted and repeat offenders will be blocked.

When in doubt, please ask. I'm not mean, I'm just committed to preserving the quality of experience for my readers.